This BGS-designed technology has significant potential for commercialisation. To protect this innovation, a NERC patent application was filed with the US Patent Office. This has now been granted(Patent No. US 7,492,168 B2).

Applications

Figure 2. CRI image of a mineshaft.

The CRI system has been used successfully to detect abandoned mineshafts (see Figure 2) but the technology has great potential for the rapid mapping of soils, superficial deposits, permafrost, or the non-destructive testing of roads and engineered structures.

High-density resistivity scans can now be obtained with centimetric resolution. Further application studies are required to prove this innovative technology.